Lyle Zapato delves into the historical writings, which are quite old, about how to hypnotize an octopus, and about how to defend yourself against a charging octopus on land. On the first subject, he begins:
The earliest known work on octopus hypnotism was done by professor B. Danilewsky of Kharkiv University as part of his research on animal hypnosis, particularly the induction of cataleptic states. His original paper on the subject was communicated in 1878, in Russian…
Here’s an image he dug up pertaining to the second topic:
